The Australian Energy Regulator has published its annual report for 2013-14. The report details the AER’s activities in regulating the wholesale electricity market, setting prices for use of energy networks, and protecting customers in the retail electricity and gas markets.
Outgoing AER Chair Andrew Reeves highlighted the notable achievements of 2013-14.
“This year saw the culmination of our ‘Better Regulation’ program, implementing changes made to the rules by the Australian Energy Markets Commission in late 2012. A large part of our work was focused on preparing for the next round of reviews of electricity network prices over 2014 to 2016.
We have set out how we will approach our next reviews, established the Consumer Challenge Panel to increase consumer engagement in our regulatory process, expanded our pool of in-house technical expertise and developed comprehensive data collection systems to compare performance across network businesses.
Together, these initiatives will ensure consumers pay no more than necessary for reliable energy networks.” Mr Reeves said.
The AER’s responsibilities for the regulation of electricity and gas retail markets expanded in 2013-14, when the National Energy Retail Law commenced in New South Wales.
“Building consumer confidence in energy markets is a continuing priority for the AER. Our web comparator, Energy Made Easy, is the cornerstone of our work to provide households and small business with the information they need to exercise their power of choice.”
The annual report also includes results from the AER’s 2014 stakeholder survey and our response to the survey findings.
“Overall, stakeholders rated us ‘satisfactory’ to ‘good’ for most of the performance indicators. We received very positive feedback about how we engage with our stakeholders- the way we listen, explain rights and obligations, and give clear reasons for our decisions. This is particularly important in our role. ” Mr Reeves said.